Flight delay and cancellation compensation, Easyjet ONLY

Dear all,

I hope you are well. My friends and I were due to fly to Amsterdam via Southend Airport on 01/06/18. Our flight was at 07:05 and we were due to land in Amsterdam at 09:00. However, when we arrived at the airport at 05:00, we found out that our flight had been cancelled. There were so representatives from Easyjet present at the airport so we had to deal with the Southend Airport staff directly. Apparently, our flight had been cancelled because it was stuck at Gatwick Airport for one reason or another but that was all that they knew. On that day, flights from other airports were leaving as scheduled so we did not know what the problem was in this instance.

They had offered to order us a taxi home, thus ending our holiday then and there in an instant but we asked if there were any other alternatives as we did not want to go back home. The next flight to Amsterdam from Southend was at 19:20 which involved waiting for far too long. After much deliberation, we decided that we were reluctantly going to go back home. However, a Southend Airport employee Lindsay said there was space on the 14:40 flight to Groningen but we would have to make our own way to Amsterdam as Easyjet had not offered to do so which is pathetic. We agreed to this as we did not want our holiday to end before it started. In the time we waited for the flight, we were not looked after at all. No food or drink vouchers were offered.

The flight itself was delayed and did not depart till around 15:45 so we arrived in Groningen at 17:45. From this point we had to figure our a way to reach Amsterdam. Firstly, we had to get a bus from the airport to Groningen central in order to catch a train to Amsterdam. We caught the bus and arrived in the city centre at around 18:30 and caught a train to Amsterdam. We did not arrived in Amsterdam till 21:10 after many painful hours of waiting and hundreds of euros unnecessarily spent just so we could reach our destination, 12 hours later!

Our holiday had passed and we arrived back in England on 03/06/18. Funnily enough or flight was delayed by over an hour when we were leaving Amsterdam. When we came back, we agreed that we would put a form in to claiim compensation based on the recommendation of the staff at Southend Airport. Since I paid for the holiday, I completed the EC261 compensation claim form and this was the reply I got:

EU261 Compensation Claim Assessment
Claim received: 6/6/2018
Flight Number: 7401
Flight Date: 01/06/2018
Scheduled Departure Airport: SEN
Scheduled Arrival Airport: AMS

Claim decision: Declined
Decision summary: We’re sorry that your flight was cancelled. Our assessment and legal team has carefully reviewed your claim and the circumstances around your flight and have confirmed that your compensation claim is not eligible for compensation payment under EU Regulation EU261/2004. Please note that this may not match with the information you were given on the day of travel, as our staff in airports, and on-board, may not have had all the information concerning your cancelled flight.



Dear Anuj

We’re sorry that your flight was cancelled. Our assessment and legal team has carefully reviewed your claim and the circumstances around your flight and have confirmed that your compensation claim is not eligible for compensation payment under EU Regulation EU261/2004. Please note that this may not match with the information you were given on the day of travel, as our staff in airports, and on-board, may not have had all the information concerning your cancelled flight.

Our assessment of your claim
To further explain what happened on the day; adverse weather conditions across Europe and the UK with low visibility, CB and thunderstorm activity caused long delays to flights, as air traffic control substantially restricted airspace near affected areas. Some airports experienced flooding and power failure. Weather forecasts did not predict improvement for an extended period. The delays meant that in some cases crew were pushed to their maximum legal operating hours. There is strict industry-wide rules on the number of hours our crew is allowed to work. To protect the safety of our customers and crew, these hours cannot be exceeded. Ultimately, given all the circumstances and to minimise inconvenience to our customers, we had no alternative but to cancel the flight. We do take reasonable measures to avoid delays and cancellations to our flights by having replacement crew and spare aircraft available in our network. However, on this day, there were higher than expected levels of disruption due to adverse weather and air traffic restrictions, which meant that all our replacement crew and spare aircraft had already been deployed.


EU261 Regulation
When we have to disrupt a flight due to circumstances outside of our control, the flight is classified under EU regulation 261/2004 as being affected by “extraordinary circumstances”. An example of disruption outside of our control would be that primarily caused by air traffic control restrictions, industrial action, severe weather conditions or a runway closure.
EU261 compensation is only payable when a flight is delayed by 3 or more hours after the scheduled arrival time, or the flight is cancelled, and the reason for the delay or cancellation was within our control. This type of disruption is classified as “non-extraordinary circumstances” in the EU Regulation. Examples of this include most aircraft technical faults or when we haven’t taken reasonable measures to prevent or minimise disruption.

Expenses
Even if your compensation claim has been declined, you may be eligible for reimbursement of reasonable expenses incurred as result of the disruption. If you have not already done so, you may submit an expenses claim on our website at easyjet.com/ en/help/boarding-and-flying/delays-and-cancellations. Please read this carefully before submitting a claim as this explains how we assess expenses.
The only way to make a claim is via our expenses webform, we can’t process claims submitted by email or over the phone.

Your options now
We hope this letter clearly explains why we had to delay your flight. Our assessment team have thoroughly investigated all the available information and our decision is final.
Our Customer Services team will not be able to access any more information than we’ve provided here. Please read our “compensation explained” section on the following link which will hopefully answer any further questions you may have.
If, after reading this, you still would like to challenge our decision you should contact an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) supplier. The Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR) is approved by the CAA to provide dispute resolution services and an independent adjudication of your complaint under the Alternative Dispute Resolution for Consumer Disputes (Competent Authorities and Information) Regulations 2015. CEDR’s contact details are:

Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution
70 Fleet St., London EC4Y 1EU
Website. cedr. com/ aviation
Email: aviation @ CEDR.com

If you decide to refer your case to CEDR, please note you will need to refer your complaint to them within 12 months of this email.

Once again we are sorry for disrupting your flight.

Claim reference: ETX5V3B-7401-001
Case reference: 102927260

Kind Regards

Rachel
easyJet Customer Services

Luckily enough, I had the pleasure of meeting Mr Martin Lewis when I was at work and I explained the situation to him briefly and he said I should be able to claim for compensation. I just do not know what to do anymore because the situation is driving me insane. Sorry my post is long winded and I sincerely thank you for all your help in advance.